America Will Be! - TTBB Choir, a cappella

America Will Be! - TTBB Choir, a cappella

The Recording

The Score

The Text

taken from "Let America be America Again",by Langston Hughes

Let America be America again.Let it be the dream it used to be.Let it be the pioneer on the plainSeeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed –Let it be the great strong land of loveWhere never kings connive nor tyrants schemeThat any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me)

O, let my land be a land whereLiberty is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,But opportunity is real, and life is free,Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me,Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,I am the (black man) bearing slavery's scars.I am the red man driven from the land,I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—

I'm the one who dreamt our basic dreamIn the Old World while still a serf of kings,Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,That even yet its mighty daring singsIn every brick and stone, in every furrow turnedThat's made America the land it has become.O, I'm the man who sailed those early seasIn search of what I meant to be my home—For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,And torn from Black Africa's strand I cameTo build a "homeland of the free."

The free?For all the dreams we've dreamedAnd all the songs we've sungAnd all the hopes we've heldAnd all the flags we've hung,The millions who have nothing for our pay—Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let America be America again—The land that never has been yet—And yet must be—the land where every man is free.The land that's mine—the poor man's, (red man's), (black man's), ME—O, yes, I say it plain,America never was America to me,And yet I swear this oath—America will be!